Current Projects

Subsurface Controls Over Post-Fire Succession in Ecosystem Water Use in the Great Basin (2024-Present)

As a spinoff to the project above (Post-Fire Succession in Ecosystem Water Use in the Great Basin), we have introduced a new field study to test why water use varies in post-fire ecosystems, specifically testing the hypothesis that access to water (a product of root distribution and soil water-holding capacity) determines how much water is used. 

Team: Sydney Corcoran (UNR), Abigail Sandquist (UNR), Lila Humlick (UNR), Maya Reyes-Klein (UNR), and Scott Allen (UNR). 

Funding: Nevada NSF EPSCoR through the Harvesting the Data Revolution: Fire Science project

Snow-Soil-Vegetation Interactions in Interior Alaska (2019-Present)

Changing succession pathways are changing in dramatic ways, where forests are now establishing in environments that were expected to become tundra. We are examining the interplay of snow and soils and how they might facilitate these ecosystem changes and learning the implications of these changes on carbon and water cycles in Alaska. 

Team: Johanne Albrigtsen (UNR), Lila Humlick (UNR), Scott Allen (UNR), Sarah Stehn (Denali National Park and Preserve), Carl Roland (Denali National Park and Preserve) and Paul Verburg (UNR) 

Funding: U.S. National Park Service

Grassland Responses to Summer Precipitation (2023-Present)

In this field and remote-sensing study spanning grasslands of the Northern Great Plains, we are comparing the physiological responsiveness of grasslands to precipitation pulses and connecting those responses to rooting and water uptake habits by climate and species. 

Team: Kristen Powell (Montana State University), Andrew Felton (Montana State University), Sydney Corcoran (UNR), Maya Reyes-Klein (UNR), Scott Allen (UNR).

Litter Effects on Soil Water Balances (2022-Present)

Through a series of experiments and investigations at UNR’s Whittell Forest, we are examining how manipulation of litter layers (e.g., through mastication following fuels reduction treatments) can influence water and heat transport into and out of soils. 

Team: Johanne Albrigtsen (UNR), Scott Allen (UNR). 

Funding: Whittell Experimental Forest Program 

Tahoe Environmental Observatory Network (TEON; 2023-Present)

In this multi-faceted project, we aim to collect environmental data across Tahoe forests, streams, and nearshore lake zones and have it be made publicly available with minimal lag time. These datasets will be diverse and capture elements of climate, plant stress, forest health, wildlife populations, water quality, and productivity. The UNR team is largely focused on the sentinel watershed program, instrumenting numerous locations within Glenbrook and Blackwood watersheds. 

Team: Emily Burt (UNR), Abbie Sandquist (UNR), Kelly Loria (UNR), Scott Allen (UNR), Joanna Blaszczak (UNR), Sudeep Chandra (UNR), Bill Savran (UNR), Pat Manley (U.S. Forest Service) and Gina Tarbill (U.S. Forest Service)

Funding: U.S. Forest Service and NOAA

Critical-Zone Transport Processes: Timing of Precipitation Movement Through Soils to Streams or Roots (2017-Present)

Using intensive and extensive sets of soil-, plant-, and stream- water isotope data, we are quantifying the time scales of water movement through the terrestrial hydrologic cycle in forests across Switzerland. 

Team: Emily Burt (UNR), Marius Floriancic (ETH Zurich), Scott Allen (UNR), Sabine Braun (Institute for Applied Plant Biology), Jim Kirchner (ETH Zurich) and Greg Goldsmith (Chapman University)

Funding: BAFU Schweiz and the WaldLab Program